Prayer Flag was first published in Lalitamba – Issue 3 (2009) in a slightly different form.

A New Holy Grail

for the two U.S. led wars on Iraq

Where deadlines disappeared

in desert sands

Our government posed

as a new order warrior,

as heroic modern knight

with fearsome armor spreading

in rings and levels

of interlinking technology;

an armor less clanking

than in days of old,

an armor

not worn so close

to the body.

And jousting with missles

doesn’t yield

the death

of a lone champion,

but in mindless biocide

wreaks a total devastation.

And thus we launched a modern crusade

back into the Middle East.

And though chivalry was not discussed

other noble words

were often mouthed.

And the newly holy grail,

believed to endow its consumer

with the powers of a god,

was a cocktail made of oil,

when used as a sacrament

promptly turned

to blood.

A New Holy Grail appeared on Poetsagainstthewar.org, in Am Here Forum, and in my book, In Deep.

The Lakes of Band-I-Amir

(The statues at Bamiyan were the world’s tallest statues of the Buddha with one at 175 feet and another standing 120 feet tall. Though Bamiyan now seems quite isolated, when the statues were created between 200 & 400 A.D., they were part of a center of culture and art on the ancient Silk Road that connected China to the Middle East and Europe.

In 1973, just a couple of years after I visited there in 1971, Band-I-Amir was declared Afghanistan’s first National Park. But, that had never become a functional reality before the Russians invaded in 1979.}

I.

a. The sky blue lakes

of Band-I-Amir—

are a bracelet

of lapis lazuli

flung

in the canyon dust

by a joyous goddess

in her dervish dance—

now a gift

for all that pass

through the arid

Afgan

highland.

b. Just down the valley

(in a later age

long after the lakes had formed)

monks carved

huge statues

of the Buddha

in the living rock,

honeycombed the cliffs

with cells

and sanctuaries,

that reverberated

with their chants

and the emptiness

of their

meditations.

II.

a. Now the peace of this place

is shattered again—

Where the violence

of the White Huns

brought them to rule,

Where Genghis Khan

came slaughtering,

Where conquering emperor,

Aurangzeb,

first smashed

the statues’ faces,

Where the British waged

the Anglo-Afghan War,

Where Russian imperialists

were a plague,

Where the Taliban

did ethnic cleansing

and destroyed

the world’s tallest statues

of the Buddha

and helped

destroy

the world’s tallest temple

for the modern god

of the global

economy,

Where more recently

U.S. bombs

smashed rubble

and people

into even

smaller

pieces.

And the local villagers

(Moslems, in this era)

tough, poor, and proud

must fear

landmines,

warlords,

and yet another

invader,

this time

from the other

side

of the world.

And the monk’s caves

are empty

or hiding places

for the guilty

and the innocent,

and the in between.

II.

b. Here,

in the nation of my birth

people are

frightened,

angry,

pained,

and confused

by the molten hatred

of those

that would gladly die

to kill us

or kill what

we seem

to stand for.

III.

At the end

of a dusty burning road

Band-I-Amir

where my feelings dove

from the distant peaks

of the Hindu Kush

into wild blue beauty—

liquid lapis,

glistening

Tahoe jewels

set

in the desert—

sky fused to earth—

calm, cool, clear,

and dark

except

for a few

flashes

of golden

light

on bright

scales

of fishes

swimming up

from undercurrents

of memory,

toward

amphibian

future

a mammal

future,

a human

future

we keep

forgetting

to remember

to evolve.

The Lakes of Band-I-Amir was first published in a very different version in my book Co-Hearing (1983) before the Taliban and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. It was also published in a version very similar to this one in the anthology CANDLES IN THE DARK, FLAMES FOR THE FUTURE: Preaching and Poetry in Times of Crisis (2003). I recorded the version here with music with my poetry/music band, The Word-Music Continuum (Paul Mills – guitar, Mark Randall – bass) on our CD, Sound Poems (2007).

The Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review: “Kirk Lumpkin has been an important part of the Bay Area (and beyond) poetry scene for years, hosting readings in San Francisco and Berkeley, helping to facilitate the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival [with Poetry Flash & former U.S. Poet Laureate, Robert Hass], and hosting open mikes at Burning Man.”

He’s the author of two books of poetry, Co-Hearing and In Deep. He’s released two poetry/music CDs, The Word-Music Continuum and Sound Poems. He’s also released two CDs of original songs, Moondog Sessions and Positive Voodoo.

He’s done featured performances of his poetry all around the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, in Los Angeles, New York City, Colorado; Toronto, Canada and readings in England (under the auspices of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).